I’ve just spent a week on the Oregon coast in an intense workshop with forty other business-minded writers led by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith (with me, in the picture below).
(1) Your copyright is valuable. Do you understand Intellectual Property Rights?
The first penny dropped for me on rights a few years back and I’ve discussed this on the podcast with Orna Ross and Helen Sedwick separately. They also have a great book, How Authors Sell Publishing Rights, and did a recent discussion on the topic for the Indie Author Fringe.
But despite my existing level of knowledge, I had still been underestimating what we have as writers creating intellectual property assets.
In the last week, Kris and Dean talked about the various ways to utilize your intellectual property rights to develop multiple streams of income.
My mind was blown.
I’ll write more on this once I get to grips with what I plan to do, but for now, start with The Copyright Handbook and Kris Rusch’s Business blog posts. Kris also has a new book on Contracts coming out soon.
(2) The outsider becomes the mainstream. From author to entrepreneur to corporation.
I’ve been calling myself an author-entrepreneur for years now, because that’s what I’ve felt like, even though I have been running my business as a Limited Company (approximate US equivalent of a Corporation).
But my business footprint is no longer just me.
In 2017, I’ll be co-writing and publishing with a number of other writers, plus I’ll be writing more of my own books and moving into exploiting more intellectual property assets. So, I can’t hold onto the author-entrepreneur label anymore, despite how much I might want to.
Because this is now a publishing business.
For several years now, Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors has used the term author-publisher. I’ve resisted the term, actively arguing against it, because deep down, I wanted to remain on the edge. I wanted to be the rebel, the independent, the outsider.
But inevitably, the outsider becomes the mainstream.
I alluded to this when I spoke at the Smarter Artist Summit earlier this year and Dean Wesley Smith reiterated this during the last week.
If you want to know the future of publishing, look at the past.
The biggest publishing houses started out as just a few people wanting to sell books. The biggest literary agencies started out as individuals selling rights for a couple of authors. Many indie authors have now started publishing other authors, which technically makes them small presses.
I've been resisting this model but I realized this week that my business is already acting like a small press. In order to move forward, I need to embrace the term publisher and start to act like one. I’ll get into what that actually means in future posts, since I am still thinking about the ramifications.
But it’s an interesting mind shift for me personally. 🙂
As a side note, if you look at the ‘decline’ of indie author income as recently reported by Author Earnings, some of that dip can be explained by the maturation of the indie author space. A number of top-earning indie authors have started small presses and therefore are reported in a separate category, and most career-minded authors are making significant money outside of the Amazon eco-system.
Plus, a number of top earning indie authors who don’t want to run a publishing company have signed with Amazon Publishing imprints, so they have also moved category.
In addition, I’ve heard from long-term authors that book sales plummet in contentious election years. After all, the news cycle is heart-pounding entertainment right now …
(3) Find your mentors and model (parts of) their journey
I’m always thrilled to hear from writers who find my own journey an inspiration, and I believe it’s super important for us all to have mentors.
These don’t need to be in-person mentors with some kind of official mentoring program. You can ‘adopt’ a mentor by reading their books and blog posts, listening to interviews with them and following them on social media and noting what they share and read.
There are a couple of women I admire and think the world of within the indie space. They are my mentors. One is Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors and now my good friend. The other is Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who I finally met last week, after stalking for years online. I must admit to being a bit of a bashful fan-girl for the first day 🙂
I’ve been following Kris’s blog and reading her books for several years now, along with those of her husband and business partner, Dean Wesley Smith. I consider them both to be the level-heads of indie publishing, running a flourishing publishing business in an ever-changing market, learning new ways and adapting, while avoiding the pitfalls of shiny object syndrome and emotional reactions to the market. They have been an anchor for me over the last few years and I've done a lot of their online courses.
But this week took things up a notch.
What I learned from Kris and Dean this week will take my business to the next level, and I’m thrilled to say that I was able to help them with a few aspects too.
So this is an interim blog post for now. The Creative Penn will be in flux for the coming months as I assimilate the new information and of course, as ever, I will share my journey with you.
Do you have any comments or thoughts about this article? Please do share in the comments below.
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1 2 3 Next »Thanks for the update, Joanna - can't wait to hear more! I love the sound of the masterclass, too, and have added it to my wish list for the future. Also, I completely agree with you re. mentors. As I said to you when I interviewed you for my podcast, you are my unofficial mentor and I am so very grateful for your inspiration and guidance. You have transformed the way I look at my author career and it is richer (both in monetary terms and satisfaction) for it. Thank you!
Thanks so much, Sarah. I'm so glad we can all form a virtual mentor chain :) I'm sure you're a mentor for others through your show!
Thank you, as ever, for leading the way. Can't wait to see the new directions that unfold.
You've been my virtual mentor for years - since back in the early Australia days. Thank you so much for that!
You're such a great support, Alexandra. Thanks for all you do!
Exciting times!
Couldn't be more excited for your, Joanna. Having walked this path from writer to author to publisher to entrepreneur to business builder, it's been obvious for a couple of years that successful and resourceful authors like yourself who understand marketing would soon realize the skills you've already acquired can be put to much wider use to multiply your reach and to help other authors, in so many ways.
Thanks Joel - and you've certainly been leading the way. I hope to make it down through California next time too!
OMG I'm so envious you got to meet Kris and Dean! I've been following their blogs for years and have known them virtually for a while. (If being a sometime-commenter counts as knowing someone!) I'm glad you enjoyed the workshop. It sounds like it was great!
Wow, what a trip!
I feel like I'm late to the party Joanna. I'm back writing and illustrating children's books again, and now have a great deal of catching up to do, so reading about your experiences is proving invaluable.
One thing I've noticed about "outgrowing origins" is I'm formatting for Kindle and the other distribution systems and have had to invent a great deal because there a surprising dearth of accurate information about this for picture books.
There's plenty of truly excellent information available about templates and formatting from Joel Friedlander for genre fiction books, but not children's picture books. So now I'm thinking I should use these developing insights to help other children's picture book authors get published, maybe even take it over for them ... sound familiar?
I must add that seeing you go from strength to strength is extremely gratifying.
Congratulations!
Jonathan
Joanna,
Like I tweeted to you, I was excited that you and I were taking a workshop from Dean and Kris at the same time. In your intro to this past week's episode, I was wondering if you were going to mention what you thought of Oregon and the workshop...until you said you were pre-recording it ahead of your trip.
I'm one of those writers who faithfully listen to your podcast every week and have enjoyed your journey as well as mine. I'm taking the Speed online workshop. The goal going in was to maximize my writing time seeing as I still have my day job. Recently, I've started waking at 4:45am to give me more time before work. So I thought Dean's workshop would simply give me critical instruction on how to go faster. Little did I know that it actually revealed a deficit in my writing that I hadn't known. So, I'm starting a new online workshop (Depth) this coming week and will run both workshops simultaneously for a couple of weeks.
Very much looking forward to hearing and reading more about your time in Oregon. I've already listened to the Kobo Writing Life podcast with you, Dean, Kris, Mark, and Dan. And I've already subscribed to Dan's podcast.
I've already written about how good and substantial your podcast is. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Scott :) I'll be reporting back on the trip mid November when usual podcast service will resume!
Scott,
The Depth workshop has changed writing for so many of us. I swear it shaved 20 years off my learning curve. I've been a trad published non-fiction author for years, and in getting back to fiction, Dean and Kris's classes have been a gift. I've also been enjoying watching the new Brandon Sanderson BYU lectures on YouTube to see where the info dovetails and diverges.
Glad to hear this feedback about the Speed class - I was wondering if it was worthwhile.
Not kidding about the Depth workshop. Literally saved me hundreds of hours of study time - showed me things I would never have thought of.
I've taken 16 or 17 courses now with Kris and Dean, and the others that really stick out -- and that I strongly recommend because they are game-changers -- are Pacing and Suspense.
I'm in Point of View now, first time it's being offered, and I have to say the same about it, too. It is essentially another Advanced Depth course, through a different lens.
Hello there! I'm also in the POV workshop now. I just about fell on my face when I realized there is a whole new dimension past Depth and Advanced Depth that I'm not doing. Dean now has a little suggested curriculum of core courses, 5 or so. I really should take Plotting with Depth next. The courses are extremely useful, but I find I need time to digest and practice the advice before I can effectively absorb and incorporate more. There is no speed-cramming this kind of material. It needs to age, like a bottle of good wine.
I am glad you had a good time, Joanna, and I'm looking forward to following your blog!
T. Thorn,
I do not know your current situation but I recognized new methods of gaining speed, complete with Dean's blowing up of various myths.
Thanks for your feedback re: Depth course. I'm very excited to expose my weaknesses and figure out ways to improve them all. I'll certainly take a look at the Sanderson BYU lectures. Didn't even know about them.
I attended the Master Class in 2014. My brain started leaking out my ears from all the amazing information. I still credit K & D for saving my writing life during a time I almost quit. Very glad I didn't.
It was great to meet you at the Coast, and was great to be in a room of such motivated and skilled people. The sense of possibility was enormous.
I think I took 100 pages of notes! I'm so glad I color coded topics for myself. Now I'm going through all my green 'to-dos', turquoise, 'big ideas', yellow 'books and resources' and purple 'further inquiries'.
You've been such a help to so many of us. I'll be interested to see where you go with the week's learning.
Lovely to meet you Thorn :) We have an epic To Do list - currently looking at courses in Intellectual Property & Copyright law!
Thanks for this article, Joanna. It's good to know that you endorse "stalking" authors that have "gone before." You are one of the authors I'm following to learn more about self-publishing, while still learning more about traditional publishing from following other authors. Let's see where it takes me!
Stalk away:)